Women In Love. A Touch of Class. The Morecambe & Wise Christmas Show. Was there anything Glenda Jackson couldn't do? And that was before she became a Labour MP in the Blair government... though she went on to be openly critical of her boss, the war-mongering liar, so that's OK too.
Let's forgive Glenda for the film that gave its title to a song by The Irish Band and listen instead to Scouse band Noctorum...
I'm gonna ring you up
And have you come on down
And lie here next to me
We're not gonna need the satellite
'Cause we've got ITV
If you press eject
Then we can both reflect
On what the best scenes did for you
We'll be Glenda Jackson and Olivеr Reed
In this epic bedsit room
And here's one of my heroes, the great Warren Zevon, with an early draft of his biggest hit...
I saw Oliver Reed walking with Glenda Jackson
They were doing nothing, ha!
I did find a couple of tracks that mentioned Glenda in the title, by bands called Hooker and Fish From Tahiti. Sadly, I couldn't find them online. So I'm left with this...
Treat Williams
Treat Williams came to fame playing Danny Zuko in the 1972
Broadway production of Grease, but I guess he was too old for the role by the
time they got around to casting the movie. Having said that, Travolta was only
three years younger, so who knows. Williams enjoyed a pretty respectable career
in the movies, across all genres, though I pretty much think of him as a
B-movie guy from shlocky fluff like The Phantom and Deep Rising. That is, the kind of movies my brain prefers.
Here’s Swedish rapper Niello…
Och dansa, dansa
psycho
Som Treat Williams
på ditt middagsbord
Which translates thus…
And dance, dance
psycho
Like Treat
Williams on your dinner table
Niello - Legenden feat Phantomen
The ultimate tribute to Treat comes from John Grant…
He could call me
up
If he wants to
chat
You know I waited
so long
Now I'm up to bat
He's no Treat
Williams, but neither am I
It might be
wishful thinkin', but you got to try
CORMAC McCARTHY
There is an American folk singer called Cormac McCarthy, but he's not the one who left us this month. Still, because he's worth a listen...
I've only read one book by the other Cormac McCarthy, but it was a doozy. That said, I'm not sure I would rush to read The Road again, because as engaging as it was, it was also pretty grim. Here's a song inspired by that Pulitzer Prize-winning novel...
And here's a song that wasn't, but, y'know, any excuse...
Now for some Math(s) rock. Which sounds to me like when you're listening to one track on your computer but another track is still playing in the background and you don't realise.
I'm thinking about Cormac McCarthy
And why I can never remember his name
Or how he was supposed to change my life
And that's why English is better than Math(s), kids.
Here's Randy Chabot, aka Deastro...
Cormac McCarthy waves a flag of flapping skin
To hide his darkest fears and find a way back home
And finally... I feel like I've come across The Burning Hell before, yet a quick trawl through the search box reveals no past blog references. Regardless, this is my favourite song of the day, and possibly the week.
The band was as blue as the melted Joni Mitchell cassette
On the dash of the van they had nicknamed regret
Touring round the United Kingdom
Selling compact discs to the people of England
And Wales and Scotland,
Oh it’s hard to be a rock band these days
People like to spend their evenings in different ways
The road is a lot like the Cormac McCarthy book
Less cannibalism but a similar look
There’s nothing more post-apocalyptic
Than a landscape of truck stops and rock critics
To paraphrase Joni on the first track of that melted cassette
It’s a lonely road and it’s not over yet
Cormac's "All The Pretty Horses" was a good read from memory, although its the best part of 30 years since I read it so I may be wrong
ReplyDelete"The Road" remains my favourite McCarthy novel. But you'd like "No Country For Old Men", I'm positive. I wrote about it once.
ReplyDeleteI forgot he wrote that. Loved the film.
DeleteOnce you have read the Road it is very difficult to ever get it completely out of your mind. Haunting. It all seems so plausible you can’t help but ask yourself what you will do when things fall apart. - Brian
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping we never have to find out, Brian.
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